The Winnebago County Forest Preserve Commission again is poised to buy land from a former politician.

The first time this happened, in 2011, the “frogs ’n’ bogs” board bought 18 acres adjacent to Four Lakes Forest Preserve from former Sheriff Don Gasparini for $216,500.

Gasparini had dug three fishing ponds on the property.

This time the former politician is Dave Winters, retired state representative and former Winnebago County Board member, who with his soon-to-be-ex-wife Kathy has about 522 acres of swampland in northern Winnebago County.

The intriguing thing is that the Winterses received $937,000 from the U.S. government in 2003 for taking those acres out of farm production and returning them to wetland status.

The forest preserve district has offered $899,000 for 508 acres. Winters says the land is worth more. And there’s a pesky zoning issue that has to be resolved.

Whatever happens, most of the land can’t be developed. I’ve heard lots of jokes about selling swampland in Florida to naive New Yorkers, but this is a different kind of swampland.

If this deal goes through, the Winterses will have made nearly $2 million on this swampland. I’m tempted to flood my backyard, stick in some plastic pink flamingoes and call Orion Samuelson for advice on how to get my gub’ment check.

OK, I’ve had enough fun for today. Back to the main point: Is this land worth the forest preserve board spending $899,000 to allow the public limited access to hike, view birds and study the fascinating plant and animal life of a rare wetland?

Actually, yes. For three reasons.

First, the district would use grants and donations from private sources, so taxpayers wouldn’t be nicked. Second, the property is the type that the district has long prioritized for preservation, conservation and passive recreation. It is near two rivers; rare birds nest there, and it conserves precious wetland habitat, which is rapidly disappearing throughout the state and Midwest.

All things considered, adding this property to the forest preserve district would be in the best interests of the people of Winnebago County. If this hadn’t belonged to a prominent former politician, it wouldn’t be controversial at all.

But that’s no reason to stop it.

I see Gov. Pat Quinn’s gambit to suspend legislators’ pay until the pension crisis is resolved fizzled. A Cook County judge ordered lawmakers to get their back checks, plus interest. During the two months they were not paid, they did not solve the pension crisis. Oh, a committee pretended to work on it, but it accomplished nothing.

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The governor did not call a series of special sessions every day to force a solution. So, as the $100 billion unfunded pension liability grows by the hour, nothing is being done to find a permanent solution.

I don’t think lawmakers are serious about solving this problem. They don’t want to do the heavy lifting, and the Democrats, who control all branches of the state government, are under the thumb of the labor unions, who think the solution is to simply raise taxes.

Oh, they say it will only affect “the wealthy.” We’re about to discover that nearly all of us are wealthy.